Visa Inc. $V is Ithaka Group LLC’s 9th Largest Position

Ithaka Group LLC cut its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 19.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 52,896 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 12,852 shares during the period. Visa accounts for about 3.1% of Ithaka Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Ithaka Group LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $18,058,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Visa by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 162,544,006 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $57,711,249,000 after purchasing an additional 1,461,575 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 43,096,802 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,253,245,000 after buying an additional 1,067,631 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Visa in the second quarter worth approximately $7,034,939,000. TCI Fund Management Ltd. increased its stake in Visa by 14.6% during the second quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 19,067,558 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,769,936,000 after acquiring an additional 2,429,996 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Visa by 1.1% in the second quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,820,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,552,057,000 after purchasing an additional 145,665 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.18, for a total value of $3,661,152.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 9,401 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,282,641.18. This trade represents a 52.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on V. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Piper Sandler set a $160.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $395.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 30th. HSBC upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 8th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $391.43.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $316.65 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $574.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 1.11. The business has a 50-day moving average of $333.60 and a 200 day moving average of $338.23. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $299.00 and a 12 month high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit-card processor reported $3.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.14 by $0.03. Visa had a net margin of 50.23% and a return on equity of 61.74%. The company had revenue of $10.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.69 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.75 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 10th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 25.14%.

Visa Company Profile

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.